Hash-based load balancing for bonded network interfaces

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for hash-based load balancing implemented by bonded network interfaces. An example method may comprise: receiving, by a bonded interface of a computer system, a data link layer frame originated by a virtual machine; identifying a network interface controller (NIC) of the bonded interface by calculating a value of a hash function of an identifier of the virtual machine and at least one of: a destination Media Access Control (MAC) address of the data link layer frame or a destination network layer address of a network layer packet comprised by the data link layer frame; and transmitting the data link layer frame via the identified NIC.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure is generally related to link aggregation, and ismore specifically related to systems and methods for providing loadbalancing for bonded interfaces.

BACKGROUND

Link aggregation refers to various methods of combining multiple networkconnections in order to increase the overall throughput which might notbe achieved by a single connection. Network interface controller (NIC)bonding refers to a method of aggregating multiple NICs into a singlelogical interface.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure is illustrated by way of examples, and not by wayof limitation, and may be more fully understood with references to thefollowing detailed description when considered in connection with thefigures, in which:

FIG. 1 depicts a high-level component diagram of an example computersystem operating in accordance with one or more aspects of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates an example networking configurationimplemented by a host computer system, in accordance with one or moreaspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates hash-based load balancing implementedby a bonded network interface, in accordance with one or more aspects ofthe present disclosure;

FIG. 4 depicts a flow diagram of an example method 400 for hash-basedload balancing implemented by bonded network interfaces, in accordancewith one or more aspects of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 5 depicts a block diagram of an illustrative computer systemoperating in accordance with examples of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Described herein are methods and systems for hash-based load balancingimplemented by bonded network interfaces.

In the below description and examples, references are made to OpenSystems Interconnection (OSI) model layers, including data link layer(layer 2) and network (layer 3), as defined by Recommendation X.200(07/94) by International Telecommunications Union (ITU). A “frame”herein shall refer to a unit of transmission in a data link layerprotocol, including a link-layer header followed by a data packet. Thedata link layer provides local delivery of frames between devices on thesame local area network (LAN). Functions of data link layer protocolsinclude local delivery, addressing, and media arbitration. Examples ofdata link protocols include Ethernet, Infiniband, or Wi-Fi. The networklayer provides the functional and procedural means of transferringvariable-length data sequences from a source to a destination host viaone or more networks, while maintaining the quality of servicefunctions. Functions of network layer protocols include host addressingand message forwarding.

“Network interface controller” (NIC) herein refers to a computerhardware component that connects a computer to a computer network. A NICmay comprise electronic circuitry required to communicate with othernetworked devices using specific physical layer and data link layerstandards.

Network interface controller bonding herein refers to a method ofaggregating multiple NICs into a single logical interface that may beavailable to applications via a corresponding driver. Outgoing data linklayer frames may be transmitted to an external recipient (e.g., aswitch) via one of the NICs of the boded interface, referred to as“egress NIC.” The egress NIC may be selected by a method thatfacilitates load balancing among the NICs participating in the bondedinterface.

In certain implementations, the interface bonding technique may beemployed in a virtualized environment, wherein a hypervisor mayimplement a data link layer bridge to aggregate traffic to/from two ormore virtual NICs (vNICs) associated with one or more virtual machines.The bridged vNICs may communicate to two or more NICs of the hostcomputer via a bonded interface that employs the hash-based loadbalancing technique, as described in more details herein below.

In accordance with one or more aspects of the present disclosure, theselection of a NIC for outgoing frame transmission may be performedbased on a hash function. Responsive to receiving an outgoing data linklayer frame, the bonded interface may identify an egress NIC of thebonded interface by calculating a value of the hash function. Argumentsof the hash function may include the identifier of the virtual machinethat has originated the data link layer frame and one or more addressesextracted from the headers of the data link layer frame (e.g., thedestination Media Access Control (MAC) address of the data link layerframe and/or the destination network layer address of the network layerpacket comprised by the data link layer frame). In certainimplementations, the virtual machine identifier may be represented by anarbitrary value assigned to a virtual machine by the hypervisor upon thevirtual machine's creation or start up. Alternatively, the virtualmachine identifier may be provided by an identifier of the virtualnetwork interface that has originated the data link layer frame.

Calculating the hash function may include performing one or moreaddition and/or exclusive disjunction (XOR) operations. Calculating thehash function may further include calculating a cyclic redundancy check(CRC) value.

Employing, for identifying an egress NIC of a bonded interface, a hashfunction whose value is dependent on the destination address (e.g., theMAC or network layer address) allows even a single active virtualmachine utilize two or more NICs of the host computer systemsimultaneously. Employing a hash function whose value is dependent on anidentifier of the virtual machine that has originated the frame allowsbetter load balancing among two or more virtual machines utilizingsimilar traffic patterns.

Various aspects of the above referenced methods and systems aredescribed in details herein below by way of examples, rather than by wayof limitation.

FIG. 1 depicts a high-level component diagram of an examples computersystem operating in accordance with one or more aspects of the presentdisclosure. Example computer system 100 may comprise one or moreprocessing devices 120A-120B communicatively coupled to one or morememory devices 130 and two or more NICs 140A-140B via a system bus 150.

“Processor” or “processing device” herein refers to a device capable ofexecuting instructions encoding arithmetic, logical, or I/O operations.In one illustrative example, a processor may follow Von Neumannarchitectural model and may comprise an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), acontrol unit, and a plurality of registers. In a further aspect, aprocessor may be a single core processor which is typically capable ofexecuting one instruction at a time (or process a single pipeline ofinstructions), or a multi-core processor which may simultaneouslyexecute multiple instructions. In another aspect, a processor may beimplemented as a single integrated circuit, two or more integratedcircuits, or may be a component of a multi-chip module (e.g., in whichindividual microprocessor dies are included in a single integratedcircuit package and hence share a single socket). A processor may alsobe referred to as a central processing unit (CPU). “Memory device”herein refers to a volatile or non-volatile memory device, such as RAM,ROM, EEPROM, or any other device capable of storing data. “I/O device”herein refers to a device capable of providing an interface between aprocessor and an external device capable of inputting and/or outputtingbinary data.

In various implementations, computer system 100 may further comprisevarious other devices, such as peripheral device controllers, which areomitted from FIG. 1 for clarity and conciseness.

Computer system 100 may be employed as a host system configured to runmultiple virtual machines 170, by executing a software layer 180, oftenreferred to as “hypervisor,” above the hardware and below the virtualmachines. In one illustrative example, hypervisor 180 may be a componentof an operating system 185 executed by host computer system 100.Alternatively, hypervisor 180 may be provided by an application runningunder host operating system 185, or may run directly on host computersystem 100 without an operating system beneath it. Hypervisor 180 mayabstract the physical layer, including processors, memory, and I/Odevices, and present this abstraction to virtual machines 170 as virtualdevices.

Virtual machine 170 may comprise one or more virtual processors 190.Processor virtualization may be implemented by hypervisor 180 schedulingtime slots on one or more physical processors 120 such that from theguest operating system's perspective those time slots are scheduled onvirtual processor 190. Virtual machine 170 may execute guest operatingsystem 196 which may utilize the underlying virtual devices, includingvirtual memory 192, virtual I/O devices 195, and vNICs 194. One or moreapplications 198 may be running on virtual machine 170 under guestoperating system 196.

In certain implementations, computer system 100 may include a bondingdriver 182 configured to aggregate two or more host NICs 140A-140Z intoa bonded interface 220 acting as a data link layer logical networkinterface that may be employed by various applications being executed bycomputer system 100. “Driver” herein refers to an executable code modulethat provides a software interface to one or more physical or logicaldevices, thus enabling the operating systems and application programs toaccess the underlying device functions. In an illustrative example,bonding driver 182 may be implemented by an executable code module(e.g., a kernel loadable module or a user space module) executed byoperating system 185.

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates an example networking configurationimplemented by host computer system 100, in accordance with one or moreaspects of the present disclosure. As schematically illustrated by FIG.2, each virtual machine 170 may comprise a vNIC 194. Host computersystem 100 may implement a data link layer bridge 210 to forward datalink layer frames between the bridged vNICs 194A-194N and bondedinterface 220 aggregating two or more NICs 140A-140Z into a single datalink layer logical interface. In certain implementations, bridge 210 maybe implemented by a bridge driver 184 (e.g., a code module beingexecuted within the context of hypervisor 180).

In an illustrative example, each of two or more host NICs 140A-140Z maybe connected to a corresponding switch port of the same data link layerswitch (not shown in FIG. 2), thus increasing the overall throughput ofbonded interface 220. In another illustrative example, two or more NICs140A-140Z may be connected to switch ports of two or more data linklayer switches, thus increasing both the overall throughput andreliability of bonded interface 220, as bonded interface 220 would stillbe fully functional even in the event of a failure of one or more datalink layer switches to which NICs 140A-140Z are connected.

Virtual machine 170 may transmit outgoing data link layer frames (e.g.,Ethernet frames) via a vNIC 194. Responsive to determining that a datalink layer frame transmitted by a virtual machine 170 is addressed toanother virtual machine connected to the same data link layer bridge210, bridge driver 184 may deliver the data link layer frame to thedestination vNIC. Otherwise, if the data link layer frame transmitted bya virtual machine 170 is addressed to a recipient residing outside ofhost computer system 100, bridge driver 184 may deliver the outgoingdata link layer frame to bonded interface 220.

Bonding driver 182 may select an egress NICs for outgoing frametransmission by calculating a value of a hash function 300 constructedin accordance with one or more aspects of the present disclosure. Anexample hash function 300 is described in more details herein below withreference to FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates an example hash function that may beemployed for performing hash-based load balancing by a bonded networkinterface, in accordance with one or more aspects of the presentdisclosure. As schematically illustrated by FIG. 3, arguments of thehash function 300 may include an identifier 310 of the virtual machinethat has originated the data link layer frame and one or more addresses320 of the data link layer frame (e.g., the destination Media AccessControl (MAC) address of the data link layer frame and/or thedestination network layer address of the network layer packet comprisedby the data link layer frame). The hash function value 330 may identifythe egress NIC to be employed for the outgoing frame transmission.Calculating the hash function may include performing one or moreaddition and/or exclusive disjunction (XOR) operations. Calculating thehash function may further include calculating a cyclic redundancy check(CRC) value.

In the illustrative example of FIG. 3, the hash function is defined as

((virtual machine ID) XOR (destination MAC address)) mod (number of NICsaggregated by the bonded interface),

wherein virtual machine ID denotes an identifier of the virtual machine,XOR denotes the exclusive disjunction operation, and mod denotes themodulo operation.

In certain implementations, the virtual machine identifier may berepresented by an arbitrary value assigned to a virtual machine by thehypervisor upon the virtual machine's creation or start up.Alternatively, the virtual machine identifier may be provided by anidentifier of the virtual network interface that has originated the datalink layer frame.

Employing, for identifying an egress NIC of a bonded interface, a hashfunction whose value is dependent on the destination address (e.g., theMAC or network layer address) allows even a single active virtualmachine utilize two or more NICs of the host computer systemsimultaneously. Employing a hash function whose value is dependent on anidentifier of the virtual machine that has originated the frame allowsbetter load balancing among two or more virtual machines utilizingsimilar traffic patterns.

Referring again to FIG. 2, responsive to receiving an outgoing data linklayer frame, bonding driver 182 interface may identify an egress networkinterface controller (NIC) of the bonded interface by calculating avalue of hash function 300. Bonding driver 182 may then transmit theoutgoing frame via the selected NIC.

In certain implementations, bonded interface 220 may be configured tosubstitute the source MAC address of the outgoing data link layer framewith a MAC address of the identified egress NIC before transmitting theoutgoing data link layer frame. In order to facilitate the delivery ofincoming data link layer frames addressed to virtual machines 170,bonded interface 220 may be configured to respond to Address ResolutionProtocol (ARP) requests with respect to network layer addresses assignedto the vNICs 194A-194N. Such an ARP response may comprise the MACaddress of one of the NICs of the bonded interface. Incoming data linklayer frames may thus be addressed to a NIC of the bonded interface andmay then be routed by the bonded interface based on the network layeraddresses.

Alternatively, bonded interface 220 may be configured to transmit theoutgoing data link layer frame without substituting the source MACaddress. In order to facilitate the delivery of incoming data link layerframes addressed to vNICs 194, bonded interface 220 may be configured torespond to Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) requests with respect tonetwork layer addresses assigned to the vNICs 194A-194N. Such an ARPresponse may comprise the MAC address of the vNIC to which the networklayer address is assigned. Host NICs 140 may be configured to receive,in the promiscuous mode, data link layer frames addressed to MACaddresses assigned to one or more vNICs 194A-194N. The received incomingdata link layer frames may then be routed by the bonded interface to thedestination vNIC 194 based on the MAC addresses.

“Promiscuous mode” herein refers to a mode of NIC operation in which theNIC passes to its driver all received data link layer frames, ratherthan dropping the data link layer frames that are not addressed to theparticular NIC by a broadcast, multicast or unicast address.

FIG. 4 depicts a flow diagram of an example method 400 for hash-basedload balancing implemented by bonded network interfaces, in accordancewith one or more aspects of the present disclosure. Method 400 may beperformed by a computer system that may comprise hardware (e.g.,circuitry, dedicated logic, and/or programmable logic), software (e.g.,instructions executable on a computer system to perform hardwaresimulation), or a combination thereof. Method 400 and/or each of itsindividual functions, routines, subroutines, or operations may beperformed by one or more processors of the computer system executing themethod. In certain implementations, method 400 may be performed by asingle processing thread. Alternatively, method 400 may be performed bytwo or more processing threads, each thread executing one or moreindividual functions, routines, subroutines, or operations of themethod. In an illustrative example, the processing threads implementingmethod 400 may be synchronized (e.g., using semaphores, criticalsections, and/or other thread synchronization mechanisms).Alternatively, the processing threads implementing method 400 may beexecuted asynchronously with respect to each other.

At block 410, the bonding driver being executed by the example hostcomputer system may receive an outgoing data link layer frametransmitted by a virtual machine via a data link layer bridge, asdescribed in more details herein above.

At block 420, the bonding driver may select an egress NICs for outgoingframe transmission by calculating a value of a hash function constructedin accordance with one or more aspects of the present disclosure.Arguments of the hash function may include an identifier of the virtualmachine that has originated the data link layer frame and one or moreaddresses of the data link layer frame (e.g., the destination MediaAccess Control (MAC) address of the data link layer frame and/or thedestination network layer address of the network layer packet comprisedby the data link layer frame), as described in more details hereinabove.

At block 430, the bonding driver may transmit the outgoing data linklayer frame via the identified egress NIC. Responsive to completingoperations described with reference to block 430, the method may loopback to block 410.

FIG. 5 depicts an example computer system 1000 which can perform any oneor more of the methods described herein. In an illustrative example,computer system 1000 may correspond to host computer system 100 of FIG.1.

In certain implementations, computer system 1000 may be connected (e.g.,via a network, such as a Local Area Network (LAN), an intranet, anextranet, or the Internet) to other computer systems. Computer system1000 may operate in the capacity of a server or a client computer in aclient-server environment, or as a peer computer in a peer-to-peer ordistributed network environment. Computer system 1000 may be provided bya personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a PersonalDigital Assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a web appliance, aserver, a network router, switch or bridge, or any device capable ofexecuting a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specifyactions to be taken by that device. Further, the term “computer” shallinclude any collection of computers that individually or jointly executea set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more ofthe methods described herein.

In a further aspect, the computer system 1000 may include a processor1002, a volatile memory 1004 (e.g., random access memory (RAM)), anon-volatile memory 1006 (e.g., read-only memory (ROM) orelectrically-erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM)), and a secondary memory1016 (e.g., a data storage device), which may communicate with eachother via a bus 1008.

Processor 1002 may be provided by one or more processing devices such asa general purpose processor (such as, for example, a complex instructionset computing (CISC) microprocessor, a reduced instruction set computing(RISC) microprocessor, a very long instruction word (VLIW)microprocessor, a microprocessor implementing other types of instructionsets, or a microprocessor implementing a combination of types ofinstruction sets) or a specialized processor (such as, for example, anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmablegate array (FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP), or a networkprocessor).

Computer system 1000 may further include a network interface controller1022. Computer system 1000 also may include a video display unit 1010(e.g., an LCD), an alphanumeric input device 1012 (e.g., a keyboard), apointing device 1014 (e.g., a mouse), and an audio output device 1020(e.g., a speaker).

Secondary memory 1016 may include a non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium 1024 on which may be stored instructions 1054 encodingany one or more of the methods or functions described herein, includinginstructions encoding bonding driver 182 of FIG. 1 implementing method400 for hash-based load balancing implemented by bonded networkinterfaces.

Instructions 1054 may also reside, completely or partially, within mainmemory 1004 and/or within processor 1002 during execution thereof bycomputer system 1000, hence, main memory 1004 and processor 1002 mayalso constitute machine-readable storage media.

While computer-readable storage medium 1024 is shown in the illustrativeexamples as a single medium, the term “computer-readable storage medium”shall include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized ordistributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that storethe one or more sets of executable instructions. The term“computer-readable storage medium” shall also include any tangiblemedium that is capable of storing or encoding a set of instructions forexecution by a computer that cause the computer to perform any one ormore of the methods described herein. The term “computer-readablestorage medium” shall include, but not be limited to, solid-statememories, optical media, and magnetic media.

The methods, components, and features described herein may beimplemented by discrete hardware components or may be integrated in thefunctionality of other hardware components such as ASICS, FPGAs, DSPs orsimilar devices. In addition, the methods, components, and features maybe implemented by firmware modules or functional circuitry withinhardware devices. Further, the methods, components, and features may beimplemented in any combination of hardware devices and softwarecomponents, or only in software.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, terms such as “updating”,“identifying”, “determining”, “sending”, “assigning”, or the like, referto actions and processes performed or implemented by computer systemsthat manipulates and transforms data represented as physical(electronic) quantities within the computer system registers andmemories into other data similarly represented as physical quantitieswithin the computer system memories or registers or other suchinformation storage, transmission or display devices. Also, the terms“first,” “second,” “third,” “fourth,” etc. as used herein are meant aslabels to distinguish among different elements and may not necessarilyhave an ordinal meaning according to their numerical designation.

Examples described herein also relate to an apparatus for performing themethods described herein. This apparatus may be specially constructedfor performing the methods described herein, or it may comprise ageneral purpose computer system selectively programmed by a computerprogram stored in the computer system. Such a computer program may bestored in a computer-readable tangible storage medium.

The methods and illustrative examples described herein are notinherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus.Various general purpose systems may be used in accordance with theteachings described herein, or it may prove convenient to construct morespecialized apparatus to perform method 400 and/or each of itsindividual functions, routines, subroutines, or operations. Examples ofthe structure for a variety of these systems are set forth in thedescription above.

The above description is intended to be illustrative, and notrestrictive. Although the present disclosure has been described withreferences to specific illustrative examples and implementations, itwill be recognized that the present disclosure is not limited to theexamples and implementations described. The scope of the disclosureshould be determined with reference to the following claims, along withthe full scope of equivalents to which the claims are entitled.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: receiving, by a bonded interface of a computer system, a data link layer frame originated by a virtual machine; identifying, by a processor, a network interface controller (NIC) of the bonded interface by calculating a value of a hash function of an identifier of the virtual machine and at least one of: a destination Media Access Control (MAC) address of the data link layer frame or a destination network layer address of a network layer packet comprised by the data link layer frame; and transmitting the data link layer frame via the identified NIC.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the value of the hash function comprises performing at least one of: an addition operation or an exclusive disjunction (XOR) operation.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the value of the hash function comprises calculating a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) value.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: retrieving, by a hypervisor running managing the virtual machine, the identifier of the virtual machine from a memory accessible by the hypervisor.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: assigning, by a hypervisor managing the virtual machine, the identifier to the virtual machine.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifier of the virtual machine is provided by an identifier of a virtual network interface that has originated the data link layer frame.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the data link layer frame further comprises: substituting a source MAC address of the data link layer frame with a MAC address of the identified NIC.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the data link layer frame is performed without substituting a source MAC address of the data link layer frame.
 9. A computer system comprising: a memory; and a processor, operatively coupled to the memory, to: receive, by a bonded interface, a data link layer frame originated by a virtual machine; identify a network interface controller (NIC) of the bonded interface by calculating a value of a hash function of an identifier of the virtual machine and at least one of: a destination Media Access Control (MAC) address of the data link layer frame or a destination network layer address of a network layer packet comprised by the data link layer frame; and transmit the data link layer frame via the identified NIC.
 10. The computer system of claim 9, wherein to calculate the value of the hash function, the processor is to perform at least one of: an addition operation or an exclusive disjunction (XOR) operation.
 11. The computer system of claim 9, wherein to calculate the value of the hash function, the processor is to calculate a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) value.
 12. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the processor is further to: retrieve, by a hypervisor running managing the virtual machine, the identifier of the virtual machine from a memory accessible by the hypervisor.
 13. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the processor is further to: assign, by a hypervisor managing the virtual machine, the identifier to the virtual machine.
 14. The computer system of claim 9, wherein to transmit the data link layer frame, the processor is further to: substitute a source MAC address of the data link layer frame with a MAC address of the identified NIC.
 15. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the processor is to transmit the data link layer frame without substituting a source MAC address of the data link layer frame.
 16. A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor: receive, by a bonded interface, a data link layer frame originated by a virtual machine; identify, by the processor, a network interface controller (NIC) of the bonded interface by calculating a value of a hash function of an identifier of the virtual machine and at least one of: a destination Media Access Control (MAC) address of the data link layer frame or a destination network layer address of a network layer packet comprised by the data link layer frame; and transmit the data link layer frame via the identified NIC.
 17. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 16, further comprising executable instructions causing the processor to perform at least one of: an addition operation or an exclusive disjunction (XOR) operation.
 18. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 16, further comprising executable instructions causing the processor to calculate a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) value.
 19. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 16, further comprising executable instructions causing the processor to: retrieve, by a hypervisor running managing the virtual machine, the identifier of the virtual machine from a memory accessible by the hypervisor.
 20. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 16, further comprising executable instructions causing the processor to: assign, by a hypervisor managing the virtual machine, the identifier to the virtual machine. 